Mini World Adventure Part 12

The last leg Iran to Cornwall

All was going well until we came to a by now normal check point, unfortunately this one was run by the infamous National Guard. They completely stripped the cars and found a machete in Tony’s that he had bought in the Amazon. 
We were all arrested and told to drive with an armed escort to a small police station about 10 miles off the main road beginning to panic a bit as no one knew where we were and the treatment, was if we were criminals. They took our passports, under duress, and although we were not in cells we were under armed guard. 
Of all 'scrapes' we got ourselves into I think this was the most frightening looking back at it, people were disappearing in Iran at this time, the country was at war, the National Guard were ruthless and we had not contacted home for several weeks so they did not even know which country we were in!
After a couple of hours a high ranking officer came and with profuse apologies gave us our passports back and escorted us back to the main road. 

I was amazed that in the mountains behind Tehran were covered in Snow and for the first time for a long time we were beginning to feel cold. We drove onto the Turkish border where there must have been a queue of at least 500 trucks.

As we arrived late again and the border was shut we stayed in the queue but at first light we drove past all the trucks to the actual border post and after 2-3 hour delay we crossed over. It was a very mountainous area with more snow beside the dirt roads,(we thought we had seen the last of these!)

so, of course we stopped and had a snowball fight, and the locals must have wondered what on earth was going on.

It is quite noticeable that either side of every border the roads and towns are very poor, I am sure there is a military reason for this.

We started to meet some English truck drivers who were driving across Europe and into Iran and it was strange to see English registration plates again. 

As we crossed the Bosporus Bridge we left Asia and crossed into Europe and you have guessed, it was raining.

It was now a couple Eastern Bloc communist countries, firstly Bulgaria, and to get in we had to pay $50.00 each as we were only ‘In Transit’ a great way to get foreign currency.

It looked and felt very different, lots of posters with workers all wearing the same written in Slavic, the towns were very grey, all the houses the same, agriculture was very old fashion with horses & carts still in use. 





Still sleeping in hammocks was causing a bit of attention, once we the only place to tie to in a layby was a bulldozer;

luckily we were away before they started work again. You can just see Peter, our cameraman's,mat on the right as he unfortunately did not have a hammock and slept directly on the ground.

We travelled through Sofia a very modern city and onto Yugoslavia as it was called at the time.

What a beautiful country and very nice people, I can vividly remember eating lunch in the beautiful gorge below, in a roadside restaurant with the fuselage of an airplane coming out of the cliffs!

By now we were driving from dawn until dusk in an effort to get back as soon as we could, though Belgrade, Zagreb and on into Austria and Germany. The road conditions were of course much better being back in Europe and the last few countries were almost a blur as we just wanted to get back home.

On the German Autobahn we had typical Mini problems with rain getting into the Distributor cap,

so we sheltered under and bridge and used plastic carrier bags to keep the electrics dry. 

Eventually we made it to Calais; we contacted Save the Children Fund and the BBC to arrange our return and it gave us a couple of days to clean ourselves and the cars up.

We had some issues with customs at Dover as you imagine, but after travelling for 13 months through 33 countries I guess there was much to check! 
As soon as we cleared we headed up the Motorway to our appointed with the BBC to go out live on Nationwide TV.

Unfortunately a wheel bearing failed on one of the cars

so I had to change it on the hard shoulder of the M2 trying to keep my only best set of clothes clean. I think this was the only time we used any of the spare parts we carried in the cars. Looking now at this photo just imagine how busy this road is today and how old fashion the cars and trucks look.

We made it just in time, they drained the fuel from the cars and they were taken by lift to the Studio.

We were interviewed by Hugh Scully and then local BBC taking to a blank screen which was a bit disconcerting; I need to apologise to Mary here, as when asked what I was l looking forward to most, I copied Tony, and said a pint in the pub, when of course it was getting back to Mary and my family, to be honest all we wanted to do was get back home so as soon as they cars were out, we drive straight back to Cornwall. 

So after 13 months, 33 countries and over 50000 miles we managed to get both cars and ourselves safely back, a life changing experience that will live with me forever.

I hope you have enjoyed reading these blogs as much as I have re-living them.
I have to thank one of my customers for 'badgering' me to write this for the parish magazine.The trip was 33 years ago but I have written this entirely from memory prompted only by place names on the map. I kept a diary, so when I have time, I might read it again and fill in the gaps.

We raised about £200,000 for the Stop Polio Campaign and although these blogs have been about my experiences the reason we took the cars around the World was to raise awareness of Polio. 

Unfortunately it is still a major but preventable disease today.

The Mini's Back 

(to pinch and advertising slogan used in South Africa by British Leyland)